


The Broken Stitch

by Jokeboi



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Alcohol, M/M, Mentioned Selina Kyle/Bruce Wayne - Freeform, One-Sided Attraction, Suicide Attempt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-15
Updated: 2018-05-15
Packaged: 2019-05-07 07:22:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14666154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jokeboi/pseuds/Jokeboi
Summary: Batman and catwoman are soon to be wed and a certain clown isn't smiling about it





	The Broken Stitch

**Author's Note:**

> notes: it's ironic that I'm choosing my angstiest fic to post first, but it's the longest one I've written so
> 
> i started writing this a while ago, not related to telltale in anyway despite the title but it has a similar tone, I wanted to make something that handled jokers feelings toward Bruce settling down because i love to suffer, enjoy!

Rain fell in Gotham as the batmobile sped down a dark alleyway, its angry rumble disrupting the oddly quiet night. The man at its wheel was silent as he stared down the dark road ahead, gripping the wheel at sharp turns and leaving nothing but a trail of skid marks behind as he rode deeper into the city.

The bat signals light had been casted onto the heavy clouds that loomed over the city earlier that night, and like always batman had been there on the GCPD’s roof in one fell swoop, quiet as a barn owl, speaking to an old man with tired eyes and a cigarette hanging from his mouth. Though the scene had been no different than usual, the atmosphere definitely was. an uneasy funk hung in the air, evident by gordons posture and demeanor. As the worn out cop had relayed the situation to the city's dark clad knight, back turned as he exhaled poisonous puffs of smoke. World weariness replaced the usual anger and sternness batman was so used to hearing from the man he viewed as a constant pillar in his life.

It wasn't just one soul at risk tonight or two or even a room of hostages…  it was hundreds .

There was no need for the commissioner to utter the name of the man he was going to be in pursuit of  tonight. There was only one criminal in the city who would dare cause so much destruction to the place gothamites called home, dare to have so much blatant disrespect for human lives. And unfortunately Bruce knew him all too well. 

After running red lights and crashing through piles of discarded debri, Bruce was parked at the base of the tallest skyscraper in gotham in minutes, wasting no time scaling up the buildings exterior. When he reached the top, shooting up into the air with the momentum of his grappling hook and swooping back down with his cape billowing in the cold wind like royal robes, he was greeted by the silhouette of a familiar jester. The clowns slender figure stood precariously off the edge of a  _ very _ long drop. Tangles of green hair dangling down in front of his face. Something, a bottle of some kind, was in his hand. A tiny black box with a mess of wires poking out of it being gripped, shakily, in the other.

The slightest turn of the man's head told batman his presence had not gone unnoticed. 

“You came." He said softly in way that was almost shockingly uncharacteristic  “i was beginning to think you’d forgotten about me" He sighed, turning his attention back to asphalt that lied hundreds of feet below him

The bat was silent for a moment, then spoke… 

“Gordon told me you wouldn't negotiate until I did" He paused, waiting for a reaction, the clown chuckled humorlessly yet in a way that was devoid of any malice. 

“Right… thats how it always is isn't it? Always having to get your attention somehow just for a moment within the velvet of your shadow…”

Jokers words always walked the line between riddles and poetry but he was being unusually cryptic tonight

“Pardon?” Bruce asked

“Our game?" He clarified “i threaten to bomb a hospital or gas a football stadium and you come running, arms outstretched, to catch me every time don't you?”

Bruce didn't reply, whatever point the clown was trying at, he wasn't grasping it yet

“It's our lot in life, how we were meant to operate, DOOMED to operate… it'd be foolish to… to think…." He trailed off, still staring down

“To think what?”

Instead of answering Joker laughed again, shoulders shaking, grip on the device in his hand tightening

“To think it could be any other way!!" He turned, frail body swaying to face the bat, footing unstable, expression wild as always but… disgraced with dark streaks of caked on mascara that streamed down his pale face like rivers. It was a sight batman never correlated with the Joker. Judging by the look on the other man's face, Those streaks weren't caused by april showers but by tears, the tears of a man with emotions, the kind Bruce had tricked himself into thinking Joker lacked. At this point it was glaringly obvious why the man before him kept trailing off into romantic metaphors, the bottle he held in his other hand already half empty

“ Joker… are.. .are you???”

He laughed, genuinely this time

“If you’re asking if i've partook in the devil's nectar, the unfortunate answer is yes… heh, that why they call you world's greatest detective, batssss?" He jested taking another swig of cherry red merlot 

“wasn't planning on facing you this way y’know?…" He said  looking at the tinted glass container and promptly discarding it, what was left inside spilling out as it fell several stories “But  the mind is a creature of its own... wouldn't’ve been able to keep myself from pressing this button as soon as I laid my thumb upon it if I hadn't calmed my nerves… heh… but now look, i’ve gone off script and soiled my makeup like a teenage prom queen what a mess…" He rakes his fingers through his hair and laughs but it’s closer to a sob  “this is all  _ wrong _ …”

Bruce isn't sure what to make of all this, but the clown is definitely upset, more so than usual. Unfortunately the with the city’s fate within his bony hands, he didn't have time to humor him.

“joker…  whatever this is, there's no time for it…”  Joker looks at him, unamused.

“gordon told me that you’re putting hundreds,  _ thousands _ of peoples lives at risk right now…  I came here to negotiate and if  you’re going to make things hard as always then-  !“

“Why didn't you tell me you were getting married?" He interrupts. The way he asks the question so nonchalant in comparison to the massive shroud of tension it gave off, shutting batman up almost immediately 

“I…" He stammered  “h-how did you???“

“Oh  _ please _ ... don't act like you didn’t know I knew!… as if that playboy facade could keep anyone in the dark for long, Bruce wayne’s fancy marriage announcement plastered all over the city ….it's hardly a secret.”

Bruce didn't know how to react to that… deep down he’d always considered the possibility that Joker secretly knew his true identity. You don't spend years sparring with someone, only to know nothing about them.

“ Joker…” 

“Married… heh… And not just to some,  _ nobody _ oh noo ho ho, the forever tempting  _ Selina Kyle _ ! gymnast, philanthropist, cat enthusiast…  _ THIEF!..." H _ e turned to glare directly at Bruce, eyes flaring with hate before shifting into subtle disdain  _ “ _ i've watched you two from the shadows before. the way you look at her. the way you breath eachother like scents wafting off forbidden decadence.”

Bruce turned away

“Disgusting is the only word I could use to describe it without leaving a sour taste in my mouth." He glared at Bruce before looking down as if he suddenly regretted discarding his drink, the action leaving him with nothing to wash the image from his mind

Bruce shook his head, denial still clouding his reasoning “why...w-why would YOU of all people care about me and selina? For  _ years _ you've wanted nothing but my  _ corpse _ and this city in  _ ashes _ and now you’re acting like… like what??  Like thats not enough?? You need me to stay  _ miserable  _ too?? You want me to be like _ YOU _ ??”

Joker almost looked offended for a split second before his expression twisted into something so raw and angry Bruce nearly took a step back 

“You think that's all I wanted? You REALLY think that's what I truly wanted??  what, i’ve ALWAYS wanted! Did you never stop to THINK that possibly MAYBE,  _ the reason I do what I do is because of the one thing you think i’m incapable of!!! The one thing you’ve convinced yourself  I lack understanding of thanks to some misplaced sense of delusional superiority!!” _

Bruce froze as he looked at the man before him, the blackness around eyes bleeding and trailing down his twisted face as he held the device in his hand above his head, entire body shaking as he breathed heavily with anger.

“A thief…  a  _ criminal _ …  and you still believe you’re too good, too  _ righteous _ for me" He growled through gritted teeth

“Selina doesn't  _ kill  _ people  Joker.” Bruce said, his patience thinning and his  anxiety racking as his eyes stayed fixed on the red button under Jokers itchy trigger finger

“AND!? it was like that with us in the beginning!! W-wasnt?..." He argued in desperation, tone wavering “before you got distracted by that flock of pests you call a family…  before it took more than a few bank robberies to get you off that kevlar clad ass of yours” 

Bruce shook his head “My _ family _ isn't a distraction! They're all I have...  and they deserve a family, a  _ real _ family, the kind I never had.  after raising 6 sons, and 4 daughters… after  _ 15 years _ , my own death, THEIR deaths… I… I-I-I had to… I have to… for  _ them _ ” every horrible event and tear shared with his children flashed in his mind as he tried to rationalize his reasoning… he didn't truly know why he had popped the question onto selina so suddenly, after years of making it clear that he was disinterested in marriage, with  _ anyone,  _ but he knew that had to be part of it

The clown only scoffed 

“Heh… funny…”

“what?” Bruce asked, bemused

“two months ago cowardly and desperate weren't two words I would've used to describe you" His words oozed poison as he looked at Bruce directly with derision. Bruce scowling at him. “don't act like you’re marrying that mangled stray for anything other than selfish reasons. all of them tying back to the cesspool of mummy and daddy issues that spawned the mess of a man you are now.”

Bruce swallowed, Joker had a strange way of reading him like an open book at times. always peering between the lines, seeing things no one else did. Bruce coped, at times by convincing himself  Joker was only gaslighting and manipulating him, as he attempted to do so often. but sometimes the hidden truths he spoke stung like daggers.

“Forget it clown... you're…" He sighs “...you just wouldn’t understand...”

Joker laughed once more, running his fingers through the mop of green hair in his head “heh… no!….. I wouldn't… of course I wouldn't. but you know why, don't you?”

“ Joker…”

“because the only thing I understand in this chaos wrought plight of an existence is us!  _ You! _ … and lately you...  _ well _ …”  his demeanor shifted into something softer, almost melancholy “you did the thing you’re oh so skilled at doing when push comes to shove….”

Bruce waited, whispering “what?”  Joker looked up at him with misty green eyes

“You surprised me…

 ...isn't that usually  _ my _ job.. Ha…”

Bruce was silent, unsure of how to react, Jokers demeanor began to ramp up again. 

“I don't know why I expected anything more from you... you were always too damned narrow minded and  _ stubborn _ to see the big picture”

There was a moment of cold silence between them before Joker was properly wound up, springing back into action.

“but I digress!" He continued, switching gears at the drop of a dime  and attempting to wipe the wetness from his face to no avail “None of that matters now! Not me! Not you! Not  _ HER _ ! None of it!" He shook furiously as he raised the trigger box high over his head, eyes wild with desperation.  “and so, I'm going to try one last time to blow this city to smoldering smithereens and pray to  _ hell _ we both go down with it!”

“ Joker NO!” batman calls out as he lunges forward.  Joker begins to laugh hysterically and presses the button as he steps over the buildings edge. As the mans other foot slips from the steep drop, batman reaches him just in time to grasp the cuff his dingey purple suit.  Joker laughs as he dangles several stories off the ground, flailing like a flag hung up on a pole. He looks up at Bruce. The bat stares back, fear on his face as he uses all his strength to keep the man from falling, even as buildings are engulfed in flames on the horizon.  Joker shook his head 

“you should know by now bats… " He yelled for him to hear “You can't save me!… you shouldn't bother yourself with it!... ”

“like hell I can't!” Bruce growled, wearing a face of stubborn determination as he gathered all his strength to pull the other man back up onto the roof, the cuff of his tailored sleeve nearly tearing off in the process. He heaves his body, with a hard slam, back onto stable ground and leans over him, wrinkled shirt in his fists.  Joker reaches for something in his coat pocket and pulls out a switchblade, Bruce braces himself for a slash to the face… but it never comes.

Joker only continues to laugh… holding the knife in the air… before dropping it and falling into a breathless fit of hysterics that slowly fades to soft wheezing and soon, to nothing. His expression softens and his whole body, slumps lifelessly, not dead, but something inside him certainly is, all his fight, gone.

“ Joker?...”

“It wasn't supposed to, y'know" He said in a small voice.

“supposed to what?” Bruce asked

_“Bother_ me... " He explained. “You were so sure that what we had between us wasn't what we _thought_... that I… that i  had almost convinced myself  the same thing after a while…”

The subdued sadness in his voice was something Bruce hadn't been prepared for. this was a side of Joker that existed underneath layers and layers of lies and deceit, fake smiles and giggles. and here it was. bore before him, open and vulnerable. 

“When I read that headline, I forced myself to believe the lie you kept pushing between us, because it would be easier...But... after sulking in doubt for five days since?... I just… I-I couldn't anymore”

Bruce is silent as  Joker starts laughing again. His makeup ruined with tears, the playfulness all but drained from his face 

“pretty pathetic huh?" He looked up at Bruce with wide and watery green eyes, Bruce searched them for moment, emotion brimming inside him, before casting his gaze out to the destruction surrounding them. orange hues devoured the night sky as his city fell apart, lives ending, memories and legacies being destroyed all by the hands of a man Bruce could never force himself to kill, or let die or even come to harm… as much as he knew Joker had to atone for his actions, no matter the circumstances, he also knew the man in his arms was  _ sick _ …

...just like he was.

Perhaps the only person he knew who refused to heal and reveled in their own pain as much as he did. When Bruce looked back to the thin, pale, man in his grasp. His eyes were downcast and vacant. 

“ Joker…??”

No response, but his chest moved, he still breathed. 

“ Joker!" He shook him , but there was nothing… a small twitch of his brow, shift of his legs that lay, sprawled, on the ground but… nothing. Bruce sighed. Contemplating. Then… Without waiting another moment…

...Bruce snaked an arm beneath his, wrapping the other around the purple clowns frail legs, and lifted him from the ground. The action woke Joker from his daze with a start, his eyes blinking wide in confusion as his hands flexed, digging his fingers into his bats thick bicep in fear that he may be planning to throw him from the roof himself.

Instead Bruce held onto the other man tightly, and jumped from the roof with him in his arms. His gliders automatically activating allowing him to gracefully fall several stories, riding on the hot winds swept up by the raging fires below. As he scanned the skyline he noticed the damage wasn't nearly as severe as previously thought. Places like the hospital, the orphanage and most if the highly populated narrows, spared.

“they aren't safe y’know…”  Joker whispered into his ear... “but you can save them… I left clues”

“I figured” 

“of course you did”

Something close to a smile crossed Bruce's lips. Born more from relief than anything but also… amusement. He should have felt guilty about enjoying such a dangerous game but… it was what they had.

as he swooped down to the Batmobile waiting at the bottom. Bruce popped the hatched and placed joker into the passenger's seat, fastening restraints onto his wrists. He did not fight. it unsettled bruce beyond belief but he kept it to himself. With a sigh, Bruce squeezed into his own seat and sped away towards the GCPD. The cabinet of the car was silent aside from the low rumbling of the engine for at least 8 minutes. Eventually Bruce took a chance and spoke.

“things won't change as much as you think they will….” He assured, not sure why he felt the need to do so.

“you don't know that… “ The other man whispered, staring out the passenger side window, curled in on himself as he watched droplets of water race on the tinted glass. the lack of legroom making him look cramped despite his unreadable expression.

Bruce opened his mouth to counter… then closed it and turned back to the wheel. As they rode off, flames on either side of them churning up ash, despite the rain, a certain word or perhaps a certain phrase was left unspoken. But deep down, despite the confusion and hatred and denial … they knew…. After so many years they finally knew and nothing either of them could say would ever suffice… the sun was setting and it was too late for that… much too late.   
  



End file.
